The End

 I doubt that I'll be adding to the blog any longer. We are on our last few days and will fly back soon. I hope everyone has enjoyed the posts and pics. I enjoyed doing it until the last day or two when the wheels started to come off. Oh well, I guess that's how life is... you just never really know.

London: Day 1 part II

 St. James Park... the most intricate pruning job ever.

  Buckingham Palace.

 And a little souvenir shopping.

London: Day 1

 We walked to the Parliament building.

  And by Big Ben of course.

 We also hit our first London museum: The Natural History Museum.

 I think everyone liked it, but seemed to be museumed out. Cindy, Abigail, and Bailley went back to the apartment and Madison and I made a run by 221B Baker St. to check out the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Totally unexpected, but the line was really long. We decided to do that another day. We did successfully find the 9 3/4 platform at King's Cross Station, the one used in the Harry Potter series and I got a nice picture of Madison.

Paris/London Travel Day

  Last meal Paris meal at Laduree... French toast time.

 Saint Germain des Pres

 Paris Gare du Nord station, getting ready to go to London.

 This is the best I could do... snapped this just we entered the chunnel.

 And we end up at London St. Pancras.

 Check out the view from the apartment. It is also right beside an underground stop.

Paris Day 4: Last Full Day

 Here's the Poilane boulangerie just across from the apartment. 

 Flour, water, and sea salt never tasted so good. We grabbed a quick bite and hit the Metro.

 This was our first time through the Cite stop... it was really pretty. We popped up just outside the Palais de Justice.

 We made it through the line and here we are just outside Saint Chapelle.

 The bottom floor is gorgeous... and this was where the palace staff worshiped. The king worshiped upstairs. The magnificent stained glass of La Sainte Chapelle. The windows tell the story of the books of the bible. This is one of the largest displays of stained glass in it's original location in the world.

 Originally Saint Chapelle was built to house some relics, the most notable was the crown of thorn put on Jesus when we was crucified. Now I believe the relics are in the treasury at Notre Dame.

 We hopped back on the Metro and went to pick up Madison's glasses. She still liked them and they seemed to work good, so they were adjusted and we were off to the Luxembourg Gardens.

  Here are Cindy and the girls at the Medici Fountain... Madison sporting her new glasses.

  And me and the girls in front of the main garden and pools outside the senate building.

 A quick lunch and everyone just crashed. We had to wake Bailley up to go get some dinner. So I guess it's time to just read and rest on the last night in Paris. Tomorrow it's back to Laduree for a proper Parisian sendoff and to the train station to go through the chunnel to London.

Bonne nuit!

Paris Day 3: C'est Fine

 Well... nothing like a sprint at 10:00 to get you going (man I ate too much cheese and drank too much wine). We made it on the Metro from Saint Sulpice to Montparnasse but there was no time to catch the 6 line over to the Eiffel Tower. So, we exit the Metro and start 'briskly walking' toward the tower.

  It gets into almost full view and erupts with light.

  Quite the 10 minute show.

 We hopped back on the Metro and made it back to the apartment. The last wash of clothes is on for the day and it's about time to collapse once again. Tomorrow is supposed to bring cooler temperatures and that will be a welcome thing.

Bonne nuit!

Paris Day 3: Next to last full day...

 Well, we rolled out of the apartment with a plan to hit the Poilane bakery right across from our apartment only to find a sign that we interpreted as 'on the seventh day the baker rests'. So we hit one of the big two names just up the way on St. Germain des Pres. We looked at Cafe deux Magots and Cafe de Flore before settling on Cafe de Flore. These two cafes are famous for their clientele of writers, philosophers, and artists of the 1920's. These are the inspirations for the cafe in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.

 Here I snap a quick picture of Cindy and the girls walking by Cafe de Flore.

 After breakfast, we walk to Musee d'Orsay, but at that point it was almost 11:00. I told you we were rolling out later and later. So we decided instead of going into the museum, we would go ahead and make our way over to the Eiffel Tower. We grab the RER line and go to Champ de Mars. I had tried to buy tickets before we left, but the website said they had mechanical issues with one elevator so had reduced the ticket availability. In fact, there were no advanced tickets available for the duration of our stay in Paris. However, the first night we were here I happened to check back and lo' and behold they had tickets available for Aug 19 at noon. A hot time, but we had tickets in hand (mobile phone email) finally.

 So we got off the RER and before me stood the beast.

 Man... now that we had tickets to the top, it seemed to get taller. It doesn't help that almost all buildings in Paris are 7 or 8 stories tall, and even then there are no buildings close to the tower. If you can't tell, I have an intense fear of heights.

 We pretty much go right in with our purchased ticket where the other line wound and wound and wound around. OK, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was ~137m or ~450 feet. So hey, I should be OK to at least the second level where we have to change elevators to get to the top (sommet).

 Here are the girls at the second story, ~115m (~380 feet) up. I said a small prayer asking for Bailley to be so scared that she won't want to go higher and I'd do the chivalrous thing and stay with her. No luck. OK, so here's my knew thinking. So, second level is really high... so how much higher can ~276m (~910 feet) feel? I mean, high is high, right? Let's go.

 Well, let me tell you. I know math says the top is roughly 2.4 times higher than the second level, but it's not. It's more like 400 times higher. From the ground (ie. way away from the top) the steel structure looks 1. beautiful and 2. fairly thickly knitted all the way up. However, once in the elevator, when the structure started thinning to approximately 4 elevator widths, the structure appeared to be 2 pieces of spindly steel riveted together in 1889. But we get there and hey it's not thaaaaat bad. What? There's a terrace? OK, so up the stairs to the terrance. What next? Do I climb the antennae on top next? It didn't help that at the top the stainless tread plate flooring was warped and kept buckling. I know someone somewhere was watching me and laughing: don't care. It took me a minute to get used to things, but we got some good pictures and walked entirely around the top.

 The best snapshot of all of course.

 On the way down, when we stopped at the second level, we decided to walk the stairs down, all 704 of them. It was easy coming down and provided a great and different view of the tower.
 After the tower, we made our way back to Musee d'Orsay. We grabbed a bite for lunch in their cafe, which happened to be right behind the clock visible from outside. Very cool.

 And their terrace was a great place for a family snapshot. That's the Seine and the Louvre in the background. Then we quickly went through the exhibits we wanted to see.

  Abigail and Bailley in front of one of our favorite Monet's.

  But I think everyone's favorites were the Van Gogh's. Here was a quick snap of Starry Night over the Rhone before the attendant told me that all the signs that say no photography meant I couldn't take pictures... oh, those signs.

 I think the last thing on our list for today, IFF everyone can stay up for it, is to see the hourly twinkling lights on the Eiffel Tower. It gets dark after 9:00 so we haven't even seen that yet and tonight or tomorrow night is our last chance. Ouch, the Paris leg and sabbatical is starting to wane. Until then, I have some cheese and wine to finish up.

Bonne nuit!

Paris Day 2

 Well, another busy day. It got really hot by Parisian standards, but by Austin, TX standards it wasn't that bad. We got up late, pretty much the usual by now, and got ready for breakfast. We walked 10 min to Laduree on Bonaparte. A friend at work had hyped the French toast (something lost toast I believe) so I was a little worried... but I knew the girls would at least enjoy it. We ordered hot chocolate (chocolat chaud), espresso (cafe), and eggs as well as French toasts. We were not disappointed. The hot chocolate came in individual silver kettles with monogrammed L's on the hot pads. The espresso and eggs were great and the French toast? Just to die for.

  Here's Madison in front of the best French toast we all have ever had. Thanks for the recommendation Dave.

 We then make our way back to the Louvre to try and make a bigger dent.

 Evidently Bailley has grown, because she's touching the top of I. M. Pei's largest pyramid. With our museum pass, we go right in. The art is incredible, but just as with the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, the building itself is amazing.

  Here's one of the ceiling in one of the rooms where everyone is looking at the art on the walls. The art on the walls was only a portion of the story.

 One of the main hallways of paintings.

 This is out of order, but another building shot of the staircases and archways when we went from the paintings to the exhibits of Napoleon's apartment.

  It wasn't too painfully crowded, so we made our way to the main attraction: the Mona Lisa by Leonardo di Vinci. It is quite exquisite. but as everyone noted, it's smaller than we expected. We also all thought that there were numerous other paintings that we thought were as impressive in our eyes... and that's nothing to take away from the Mona Lisa, but rather to indicate how many wonderful works are in the Louvre.
 Bailley wanted to see the Napoleon apartments exhibit, and we decided that would be it for the day at the Louvre.

 Here is Napoleon's dining room. All of his rooms, the family parlor, etc. were like this. Opulence on top of opulence with a little extra opulence. Cindy thought it wasn't very impressive. It was not my style nor what I would consider beautiful, but the sheer over-the-top-ness of it all was very impressive to me.

 After attacking the Louvre for a few hours, as we were walking back to the apartment, we stopped at the supermarket to mainly get water. Man-o-man, I could of just stayed there. They're cheese selection was crazy. And then around the corner was ham/salami and then the wines... I ended up getting an assorted cheese plate with some brie thrown in for good measure, a baguette, and a bottle of wine.

  Here's me at lunch with my other cheese loving buddy. A couple of the cheeses I'm going to have to write down to remember... unfortunately these are unpasteurized soft cheeses that I bet I cannot even get in the US. Why can't we make cheese like this? Clearly someone wants to keep the US low on the cheese ladder.

 After lunch, we all rested a little, then headed back out for Notre Dame.
 I knew we would be passing Pont des Arts (a bridge across the Seine) so I grabbed my surprise for Cindy.

 Pont des Arts is one of the bridges where lovers write on locks and attach them. I had bought a small lock, written our initials and 'love' and 'forever' on the lock. We got to the bridge and I surprised her with it. The small silver lock with 'love' on it is ours.

 I locked it onto the fence and threw the key into the river Seine. A fun stop and I think Cindy was surprised.
 We made our way to Notre Dame.

 And there's a nice shot of it. What a beautiful church. The 'right' (what I would call the rear, side) window in the above picture,

 is this window only from the inside. A mass was occurring as we toured the church which made it even more special. The sights, smells, and sounds were just incredible.

 Tomorrow starts our last week of vacation. Hmmm... not sure I'm all that happy thinking about this ending just yet.

Bonne nuit!

Paris Day 1

 Well, this morning was used to mainly take care of some necessities. We found an optician and Madison chose a set of frames she liked. The hope was to get them back today by 3:00. After that we went and bought Metro passes and museum passes. There was no line to buy passes at the Musee de Arts Decoratifs, so we started there. We then, as Bailley said, got just a taste of the Louvre.

 Here we are out front of the pyramids.

 We only went through a small section so we could get back to the optician to get Madison's glasses. I believe the history of the site and some sculptures. Just by chance we saw a sign as we were trying to leave... hey, there's the Venus de Milo. Yep, there it was.
 We get there, no glasses. We go get drinks to wait. Cindy and Madison go back. The glasses did not come in, but the lady gave Madison contacts for this weekend and worked with her so she could put them in. Now she has French contacts while we wait for her French glasses.

  We went and rested, then took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. Man, it's a beautiful and awe inspiring structure.

 Another good shot of it.

 And another... I took lot's of pictures and Madison did too. It's just so iconic it's hard to believe it when you are standing beside it.
 We then went to grab some food since everyone was tired and hungry. The plan was to go back to the Louvre as it is open late on Fridays. After dinner, we would of only had 45 minutes at the museum, so we decided to change plans: Arc de Triomphe.

 Me and the girls right outside the Metro stop. It's a real impressive monument, but an additionally great thing about it is you can go under the road, then climb stairs to the top. In fact, if you try you can see the people at the top behind us.

 And the view is something else. Looking down the Champs Elysees and over to the Eiffel Tower at sunset was just stunning.

 Well, a busy day... we'll see how far we get tomorrow.

Bonne nuit!